that's how you're feeling. It didn't feel genuine. But what are we talking about? It made news, right? It made news. So both times she said "dude's got to go" she got attention for it and if there's one thing you can learn from me is that never underestimate getting attention. It's not nothing. So it's not enough but it's not nothing.

All right next question on Syria. Why do we care that Russia has more influence in Syria? I would care if Assad were in charge in Syria but I don't know that he is, right? Doesn't it seem like Putin just sort of owns Syria because Putin's military is the dominant military and if you have the dominant military you're sort of in control you know even if you're not the one doing the garbage pickup and stuff you're sort of in control.

Here's the thing. Are we worse off with the United States or even the Middle East worse off because Russia has more control over Syria? Are we worse off? Because it doesn't feel like it to me. Does Russia want the Syrian army to use chemical weapons again? Probably not. Probably not because that can't be good for Russia. Does Russia want Syria to get a nuclear weapon of their own? Probably not. Probably not. Does Russia want ISIS to get a foothold in Syria? Probably not. Probably not. And then does Russia want Iran to have a greater role or more power in the Middle East? Well they're allies ish sort of sometimes but probably not.

So if you look at you know the United States objectives and Russian objectives you'd say oh there are all these places where our objectives conflict but in the Middle East and in Syria do they conflict? Is there anything we want out of that area that is incompatible with what Russia wants? There might be. I mean I'm speaking kind of in ignorance because there might be something we care about. Now I've heard it said that Russia's big play is about a pipeline and warm water ports and all that and access to through Syria to which I say do we care? Do we care if Russia has a good pipeline? Do we care if Russia has a reliable warm weather port? Really? I mean do we care? I just don't know that we care.

So do we care if Russia or Turkey is controlling the safe zones on the border with Turkey? Not really. Don't care. Now I think we do care a lot that Russia doesn't invade Turkey because then it activates NATO. We don't want that. But does it look like Russia is going to invade Turkey? No that's the last thing they'd want. So the idea that Russia has more influence in that area it looks to me like their interests are pretty compatible with ours and at the same time it's gonna be their expense not ours. The best situation is to have somebody else pay the tab and do the same things that you would have done: destroy ISIS, keep Syria from getting a nuclear weapon. It looks like it's all the same stuff but maybe I just have a gap in my knowledge